Kevin Brown, savings expert at Scottish Friendly, has commented on today’s GDP figures from the ONS

The UK economy managed to carve out another quarter of modest growth at the end of 2025, and annual growth estimated at 1.3% shows it has proved stubbornly resilient.

Elevated interest rates, sticky inflation, and months of budget-related uncertainty could have been enough to stall activity altogether. Instead, growth has held up, albeit only just.

There are early signs that once the fog around the Autumn Budget began to clear, parts of the economy regained direction, particularly across the services sector. That was enough to offset ongoing weakness in manufacturing and construction and keep the economy inching forward.

For savers, if the Bank of England base rate heads lower as anticipated this year, today’s cash interest rates will fall. Relying too heavily on cash risks seeing returns eroded as inflation persists. For those with a longer-term horizon, this is a reminder that investing remains one of the most effective ways to try to protect and grow purchasing power over time, even if the economic backdrop still feels uncertain.